All the Gods Must Die
by DaughterofDiemos
Summary: In the trio's third year they meet Derayina on the train to Hogwarts. Her white-blue eyes are only the first clue of her "unearthly-ness". Derayina has lived in a cold and cruel world her entire life and is now coming to Hogwarts. Let the games begin...
1. Chapter 1

Author Note: Hello people who are reading this! This is a story i wrote two years and therefore is most definitely not my best work. However, it is purely fanfiction and i thought it a good story to start with as i need to edit my other stories before they go on the site. Please keep that in mind as you read, not my first story. As well, this story starts off extremely tamely but will become much deeper and darker as it moves on. So not to bore you i will try to move on fairly quickly while still maintaining a reasonable pace of plot.

Warning: Will contain torture, death and severe mind games, coarse language and slightly suggestive themes at parts. You have been warned... I actually wouldn't mind a flamer as i have never received on before (obviously) and i wonder what they consist of. But just so you flamers know, I really don't give a crap about your opinions if you can't express them nicely.

Disclaimer: Everything aside from the plot and Derayina belongs to J.K Rowling. Damn... But I repeat, Derayina in mine! Touch her and die.

"Come on, everywhere else is full." Hermione opened the door to a compartment where one girl was reading a book.

"Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?" Hermione asked. The girl looked up.

"There's enough room for you," she replied. The three of them put their bags on the racks above their heads and sat down. The girl had gone back to her book. She looked to be their age, thirteen. She had long silver hair that she wore in a headband. With her hair pulled back they could see she had very pale skin, practically white. Her features were sharp and she was very pretty. When she showed no sign of saying anything Hermione spoke, introducing herself and Harry and Ron,

"I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley." The girl looked up.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Derayina." Her voice was smooth lightly accented with tones none of them had ever heard before. This time when she looked up they could see that she had ice blue eyes. They seemed as if they couldn't decide which colour they wanted to be, white or blue, so they settled to the lightest blue possible streaked with white. It was very unnerving to look into them, as if they were hiding something and at the same time seeing everything you had ever tried to hide.

"Are you new here?" Harry asked, "I haven't seen you before." He almost looked away when she turned to look at him.

"Yes, this is my first year."

"You're a first year?" She was definitely not eleven.

"No, I'm a third year."

"Oh." Harry had never heard of anyone starting Hogwarts after the first year. There was an awkward silence as they looked at each other for a minute. Again it was Hermione who spoke, having noticed the book Derayina was holding and immediately grabbing on a subject she could relate to.

"What's that you're reading?"

"Oh," Derayina quickly flipped the book over so they couldn't see the cover, "just something I picked up." She asked, "What house are you in?" Changing the subject.

"We're all in Gryffindor, what about you?"

"Gryffindor." She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, "I wanted to be in Slytherin though, it seems the more interesting House." Ron and Harry immediately opened their mouths to object vehemently but were stopped by Hermione discreetly placing each of her feet on one of their's, using enough pressure to make them wince. Derayina raised one sivler eyebrow, the corners of her mouth tilting up in an amused smile. No one said anything afterwards; there was something about Derayina that made them nervous. Thankfully the candy trolley soon came, providing a welcome distraction.

"Any thing from the trolley, dears?" Derayina said no thanks, but Harry and Hermione and Ron all bought a bunch of candies and sweets. Derayina looked faintly nauseated when Ron moaned loudly as he bit onto a chocolate frog. When Harry opened one of his packets of Gummy Potions, gummies in the shape of potion bottles, each coming with a card describing a different potion, Derayina asked if she could see it and held out her hand expectantly. Harry handed over the card and her eyes flicked over it for only the briefest of seconds before she handed it back. Harry read the card again, wondering what had interested her about it and how she had read it so quickly.

_The Verra potion is one_

_of the only substances_

_that has an effect on_

_vampires. Created by_

_Joseph Garnetferth it_

_acts as a truth serem._

Hermione read the card over Harry's shoulder and looked at Derayina.

"You're interested in vampires?" she asked.

"Very." Derayina answered. Hermione, always looking for interesting conversations, said,

"They're so interesting. Not much is known about them of course, not many people meet them. They're said to be almost extinct."

"Almost. There are many myths surrounding them. What do you know about them?" Derayina seemed to be very interested in what Hermione knew. But she also sounded as if she thought she knew more than Hermione. Harry and Ron rolled their eyes at each other, each knowing what was coming. Hermione, glad to have someone who listened, would reel off a textbook worth of facts.

"Well, vampires live entirely off of human blood," Derayina interrupted,

"Most of them do, there are some of them who live off the blood of animals."

"Oh, are you sure? I haven't read that anywhere."

"Not many of course, very, very few choose to live that way."

"Interesting. Well, most of them live entirely off human blood, they can live for centuries, and the longest living vampire known lived for nine hundred years. Their skin is hard, like stone. Their teeth are venomous and it is the only thing that can penetrate their skin. Their heart doesn't beat and they don't bleed, so no one knows how to kill them. They burn in the sun,"

"Myth." Derayina interrupted again. "They don't burn in the sun, the sun simply exposes them for what they are, and that's why they stay in the dark."

"Really? And where did you read that?" Hermione was enjoying herself, usually only the teachers knew more than she did.

"Oh, in some book." She said dismissively, waving her right hand through the air in a gesture that cause the ring on her middle finger to flash in the sunlight coming through the window. Hermione continued.

"They are incredibly handsome and there are legends that say that some of them have special abilities, like reading minds. They have only one enemy, the werewolf. Like I said, there's not much known about them."

"Besides humans you mean, they're not too fond of vampires either." Derayina said, "The reason no one knows that much is they don't choose to mingle with other people. If you know what you're looking for you can very easily recognize them."

"Yeah," Ron said, talking around a Chocolate Frog, "Dad said the Ministry had some trouble with them years ago and they haven't been seen since. Usually it's us who go looking for them."

"Who would go looking for vampires?" Derayina asked, looking at Ron. He shrugged. She turned back to Hermione and saw Harry staring at her.

"It's my eyes, isn't it?" Harry felt himself going red; he hadn't realized he was staring. "They make a lot of people nervous."

"No, it's just," he stammered, "They're, uh, pretty unusual."

"They're weird, I know." But it was more than just their colour. Looking into them was like staring into a two deep pools, knowing that you'd never be able to find the bottom if you tried. There was an awkward silence until Ron said,

"They match your hair." Hermione made a small noise almost like a choke at his tactlessness. Derayina laughed.

"Nice save," Harry muttered, as Ron turned scarlet.

"You noticed," Derayina said, "Actually, it's my natural colour." They thought that maybe she had some medical condition that caused her hair to age prematurely; no thirteen year old normally had silver hair.

The next hour they spent with small talk, until Derayina opened her book again and read. Derayina silently congratulated herself on the bit about her eyes. By saying that stuff she had thrown them off any trail they might have been coming close to. After about half an hour Hermione stood up and said they should probably change into their school robes. As Derayina stood up something fell from her sleeve. Hermione bent to pick it up but Derayina quickly reached down and grabbed it. She tucked it back into her sleeve before they could see what it was. She had moved too fast for what seemed normal. Hermione was looking at her strangely. Without meeting any of their eyes she muttered, "Thanks."

She and Hermione went out of the compartment to get their robes. Ron and Harry got changed in the compartment. A few minutes after they were dressed they heard a commotion out in the corridor. Harry opened the compartment door to see what was going on. He opened the door to see Derayina face to face with Draco Malfoy. Malfoy was Harry's arch-nemesis, and had been from the first day of school. They had a mutual hate relationship. Harry had opened the door in time to hear the end of Bellona's sentence.

"…weak, pathetic, cowardly, self-centered _bastard!_" She was speaking in a cold, hard voice, her face a mask of stone. But most terrifying were her eyes, before they had been a brilliant blue and hiding any emotion. Now they were coal black and screaming hate. She seemed a completely different person from before in the compartment. The usually pale Malfoy seemed even paler, as if he'd seen a ghost. He quickly recovered and arranged his expression into its usual sneer.

"We thought you were dead." _We?_

"Hoped is more like it." Derayina snarled.

"Too bad." Harry hated Malfoy, but it was clear that Derayina not only hated him, but had a much stronger reason than Harry did.

"Well I'm alive, despite you and your parents. It'll be a big disappointment to them when they hear."

"They did celebrate when they heard the news." Derayina's eyes narrowed.

"You don't know, do you? You and your parents think they know everything, but they have no clue." She laughed, a low, menacing sound.

"It doesn't matter," Malfoy sneered, "It doesn't matter, whatever it is. Because no matter what you'll always be your Father's…" He was cut off by Derayina's wand pressing against his throat.

"I have no father," she said in a deadly voice, "I never have. You and your mother and father made a serious mistake. Actually, you made many. I've been waiting a long time for this." For one terrifying moment Harry actually thought she was going to kill him. But she continued, "But now's not the time. And you aren't even worth it." She lowered her wand and turned away from him into the compartment. Instead of saying something cutting and managing to get the final word in like Harry expected, Malfoy just walked off, down to the other end of the train. Harry had stepped back to let Derayina in, and Hermione had followed. Derayina sat down, looking shaken. Hermione, Harry and Ron sat across from her. After a few seconds Harry asked,

"What was _that_?"

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	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Anything that has appeared in the books belongs to J.K. Rowling but the plot and Derayina belong to me. Touch Derayina and die.

Last Chapter: "What was _that_?"

When she looked at him, he noticed her eyes were no longer black, just a darker blue than earlier.

"In my opinion, that was the biggest egoistical moron in this world."

"You're related to Malfoy?"

"Unfortunately." Hermione opened her mouth to ask another question but Derayina cut her off before she could speak.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Her face looked so closed and her voice came out so sharply that they decided to drop it. For the last ten minutes before the train pulled into Hogwarts they didn't say anything. The three of them were going over the scene in their head, and Hermione was looking at Derayina strangely again, while Derayina was looking out the window, a nostalgic expression slipping over her face. Watching, Harry saw her eyes gradually turn back to that white-blue colour but this time there was more white in her eyes than there was blue. When the train pulled in Derayina quickly stood up and left the compartment, heading straight to the doors, not sparing her new housemates a backwards glance as she swept out the door.

"That was crazy," Harry said, "I actually thought she was going to kill him." The three of them were in one of the carriages headed for the castle.

"Me too," said Ron, "Do you think she was serious about him and his parents wanting her dead?"

"Yes, I think she was," Hermione leaned forward and dropped her voice, "Did you see what she dropped back in the compartment?"

"What?" asked Harry, he had no idea where this was going.

"Back in the compartment, she dropped something but picked it up before I could see what it was."'

"Yeah," answered Ron, "She moved bloody fast too. I've never seen someone move that fast."

"And her eyes. Did you see how pale she was?" Hermione asked.

"What are you getting at Hermione?" Harry said.

"Well," Hermione began, "She knew so much about vampires, I was thinking, that maybe…"She trailed off, hearing for the first time how this sounded out loud.

"You think she's a _vampire_? Ron asked, "But Dad said that they were all crazy, all they care about is blood."

"But you heard what she said," Hermione pointed out, "She said that some of them choose to live off the blood of animals. I haven't read that anywhere so how would she know that. Unless…" She trailed off again.

"Wouldn't you be able to tell though?" Harry asked, "I mean, aren't there certain signs?"

"I'm not sure," Hermione answered, "I've never done any specific reading on them. I'll look it up at the library when we get to school."

"It'll have to wait till tomorrow, there is the welcome back feast tonight." Harry pointed out.

"Hermione," Ron said, "If she's in Gryffindor, and the same age as us, won't she sleep in the same dormitory as you?"

"You're right," Hermione said, "I do know some signs, I'll test it out tonight."

"That's not what I meant," said Ron, "I meant, if she's a vampire shouldn't you be worried about _sleeping _in the same room as her?"

"Come on guys," Harry said, "You really think Dumbledore would let a dangerous vampire into school?" Hermione looked uncertain as she answered,

"Well," she said, "maybe she isn't dangerous. Maybe… Look, she might not be one. It's just a theory. I'll just do a few tests and we'll see." Harry could see she wasn't going to drop it. Besides, there was something, unearthly, about Derayina.

_Well_, thought Derayina, _She figured it out. _Derayina was sitting in a carriage with three other third-years. They were busy telling each other all about their summers and besides from the first hello, had ignored her. That was exactly why she had chosen this carriage. She had seen the three girls talking together and knew that nothing would stop them. She hadn't expected Hermione to figure out her secret. She hadn't expected anyone to figure out her secret. Derayina had tuned into Hermione's thoughts as she left the train. Once she was familiar with the pattern of someone's thoughts she could hear them from quite a distance. She usually didn't listen to other people's thoughts, she felt it too large an invasion of privacy. Besides, she didn't like the gifts she had, she would much rather be normal. _She's not exactly right though. _Derayina was thinking, _But very close. I'll have to watch out for her "tests", I'll have enough trouble anyway. _

The students of Hogwarts were all seated at their tables. The first years had just been Sorted and Dumbledore had finished his speech. All the food had magically appeared on the tables and everyone was staring to eat. Derayina was sitting with Hermione on one side of her and a boy on her right. Derayina looked at all the food, knowing she would have to eat some of it to maintain appearances. She really didn't need to eat food this often, and she didn't particularly like it. She did drink often enough though. She poured herself a glass of water and put a small amount of chicken and potatoes on her plate. Hermione was watching her out of the corner of her eye. When Derayina reached for the potatoes Hermione did the same, their hands brushed against each other. Derayina whipped her hand back as if she had been burned. Hermione didn't look at Derayina. Derayina's hand had been ice cold when she had touched it. Derayina was glaring at Hermione. She quickly composed her expression before anyone could see. She knew that if she said something to Hermione then it would only confirm her suspicions. Instead she ate a small bit of chicken and took a sip of her water.

The Weasley twins, Fred and George had been talking to each other until now. Now they turned to Derayina and asked at the same time,

"You new here?" Derayina looked up and saw the identical faces of the twins. She swallowed what food was left in her mouth and answered,

"Yeah. I'm Derayina Glaculus." The twins nodded in satisfaction over something and returned to their previous conversation.

Derayina knew that Draco would spread what he knew all over the school, but if it happened that way then there would only be whispers and rumours, what she couldn't have was an all-out confrontation. But Hermione was smarter than that, she opened her mouth to say something but the food disappeared off the plates and Dumbledore said good night to them all and dismissed them for bed. Derayina rose quickly and was soon lost in the sea of kids suddenly heading for the door. Hermione craned her neck trying to find her but she couldn't. Muttering under her breath she walked with Harry and Ron to the Gryffindor Tower.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing that is actually published or was created by J.K Rowling. However I do own the plot and Derayina. They're mine. Touch Derayina and die.

Author's Note: My apologies that this chapter is so short. But it seemed like an appropiate place to cut it off. I will update very quickly though.

Derayina walked down the almost deserted hallway, her shoes making no sound against the stone floors. She stopped in front of the gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office and said the password. The gargoyle nodded; of course she had gotten the password right. She climbed the revolving staircase and knocked on the wooden door.

"Come in," called a voice that Derayina recognized as Dumbledore's. She slipped in and the door closed silently behind her. Dumbledore came out from behind his desk and stepped forward, holding out his hand for Derayina to shake. Derayina hesitated before extending her own hand for the briefest of handshakes. She hated physical contact. Dumbledore smiled.

"Derayina, welcome to Hogwarts." She smiled. Derayina did not smile with feeling often, but when she did it changed her whole face.

"It's taken me a while to get here, hasn't it?" She said, "Thank you for letting me come." Derayina had been unable to come to Hogwarts during the first two years, and had been slightly surprised when she had been offered acceptance the third time.

"You're most welcome." Dumbledore replied, "But I must tell you some rules." Derayina stopped herself from raising one of her eyebrows; and the result was that her face gave no reaction.

"First, you are not allowed to be armed inside the castle." Derayina smiled, she was wearing three knives.

"I understand, I'll take them off as soon as I get to the dormitory. Can you tell I'm wearing them?" Derayina did not like the idea that her weapons showed; if she wanted people to know she was armed she wore a belt knife. Dumbledore shook his head, looking slightly sad. Derayina was thirteen, yet for her wearing knives to protect herself with was entirely normal, and had been up till now, necessary.

"Derayina, I have told the professors who you are, but the students don't know." Immediately desperation flitted across her face, but it passed so quickly that Dumbledore couldn't be sure he saw it.

"They know?" She whispered. Dumbledore had been careful not to say "what you are," but that was what he meant. She had guarded this secret with her life for the past five years, it was only found out once, but that had had, what seemed to her, disastrous consequences.

"Of course, the students won't know."

"I wouldn't bet on that. Someone will find out." Derayina was thinking of Hermione and her obvious fascination with knowledge and interest in vampires, she would find out, Derayina was sure of that. Dumbledore repeated some of what had been written in the acceptance letter sent to her during the summer, the main rule being that she was not allowed to use her magic that came from being what she was on any of the students or teachers, Derayina nodded in response, she had expected as much. She thanked Dumbledore again and left the office before he could offer her a candy. She had taken one the first time they had met simply to be polite but had immediately regretted it. Goddess, those things were awful.

Derayina arrived at the portrait of the fat lady that guarded the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower; Dumbledore had told her how to get there. She said the correct password; she knew it even though she hadn't heard the prefects tell the other Gryffindors what it was. That was one of her gifts, she knew the password to anything she had to open. There a lot of students in the common room, catching up on each other's summers. She wasn't completely unnoticed as she passed through the room, her appearance made sure of that. But she managed to make it to the girl's dormitory without any questions asked. When she opened the door the first thing she saw was Hermione looking at her. As if she had been waiting, which she probably had been. Derayina forced a smile onto her face.

"Hello, Hermione," Derayina said.

"Hi, Derayina."

The three other Gryffindor girls turned to look at Derayina. They introduced themselves and Derayina did the same. They were, Melissa, Carol and Alex. Before they could ask any questions that Derayina wouldn't want to answer, she turned to start unpacking her stuff. Her trunk was sitting at the base of her bed and on top of it was a completely black owl. Her owl, at least, she could speak to with her mind.

_Hello, Daemon__. _The owl turned to look at her and ruffled its feathers when she stroked its neck. One of the girls noticed the time and mentioned that they should get ready for bed. The four of them got all their toothbrushes and toiletries together and headed to the bathroom to wash up. Derayina said she'd be there in a minute. When she was sure they had all gone she reached up to the back of her neck and took out the dagger she had hidden there. Then she removed the daggers from under her left sleeve and near her ribs under her shirt. She put them in the bottom of her trunk and turned to go to the bathroom. The owl, which had been standing on the bed while Derayina had the trunk open, returned to the top of the trunk as if standing guard over it.

Hermione quickly turned so that her face couldn't be seen from where Derayina was standing. She had seen the whole thing. She was sure that there was something up with this girl, but she wasn't completely sure what it was. Would a vampire really need to carry knives? She walked quickly to the bathroom before Derayina could see her. She was just opening the door when a white hand reached in front of her and pushed it open. Derayina didn't look at Hermione as she held the door open for her.

There were five mirrors over five sinks in the bathroom. Derayina quickly went to the one farthest from the door, right in the corner. None of the other girls would be able to see the surface of her mirror. Luckily for her, Alex was already standing in front of the mirror beside it. Which meant Hermione couldn't. Derayina was furious with herself as she brushed her teeth; she hadn't noticed Hermione standing there until it was too late. As she washed her face, Derayina was careful not to look in the mirror. She tried to avoid reflective surfaces as much as she could, but sometimes it was inevitable, like now. The girls finished washing up and all went back to the dormitory. Once they were in their beds they started talking. The five beds were each against the wall and in a circle. In between each bed and the ones beside it there was a window. Derayina went to her bed and sat atop the covers. While the other girls talked she braided her hair. Her hair went down to her waist so it took some time to get it into a nice braid. During that time Derayina reflected on how quickly her life had changed and tried to decide whether she liked it or not. She decided to stop thinking about that before she came up with the answer, knowing she wouldn't like either one of the two possibilities.

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	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own or have any rights to anything that is actually published or was created by J.K Rowling. Derayina is mine. Touch her and die.

Last Chapter-. During that time Derayina reflected on how quickly her life had changed and tried to decide whether she liked it or not. She decided to stop thinking about that before she came up with the answer, knowing she wouldn't like either one of the two possibilities.

Once Derayina was satisfied with her braid she reached under her bed a retrieved a tattered black notebook. It looked like over fifty pieces of different coloured papers were sticking out from various parts of the water stained and torn book. The only aspect of the book that didn't look as if it had been dropped in a muddy river was Derayina's full name embossed on the cover in bold silver letters. Derayina skimmed her finger over the pieces of paper sticking out until she reached the one she was looking for. With an unnaturally quick movement of her wrist Derayina opened the book to where the piece of paper had marked it. Her eyes quickly scanned the page while the fingers of her left hand tapped her knee in an unidentifiable pattern. Hermione was in the bed next to Derayina and took advantage of the opportunity presented when the silver haired girl put the notebook to the side and reached under the bed again. A quick glance showed one page filled with illegible stanzas of small cramped writing and the other completely filled with bars and music notes. Hermione struggled to read the title of the music piece upside down.

Devil May Care, Devil May cry

Hermione startled at a sudden thump and jumped, quickly averting her gaze from the book incase she had been caught peeking. However, the thump had been caused by Derayina falling off the bed onto the stone floor.

"Ow…" The soft moan barely reached Hermione's ears. But as soon as it did she and all the other girls, also alerted by the thump quickly got out of their beds and rushed to Derayina. If they hadn't thought Derayina was hurt then the sight would have been comical. Derayina's head and torso were on the floor and the other half of her body was propped up against the bed with her feet still on the mattress. She was also cross-eyed and slightly dazed. Every single girl wanted to be the first to help Derayina up and so it took much longer than it should have and caused unneeded chaos. Derayina; however, was clearly not willing to put up with their concern and shook out their grasping arms irritably, flipping herself over and getting up with eel like dexterity.

All of the girls except for Hermione had begun to coo over Derayina, who had threaded her fingers through her hair to grip her head. Hermione was staring at the area of skin just above Derayina's left hipbone. When she had fallen her pajama shirt had ridden up slightly, revealing the lower part of her stomach. Presenting a stark contrast against her alabaster skin was a black tattoo. The tattoo was rather small and was of a skull and cross bones with a witch's hat on it. It was illegal, even in the wizarding world, to get a tattoo until you were of legal age. And thirteen was most certainly not legal age. Just after Hermione thought that Derayina shook her head briskly as if banishing the pain from her it and tugged her pajama top back down. For the first time the girls really looked at Derayina. Until now they hadn't had an opportunity to size up the other girl but now they could while pretending to looked over her in concern.

Derayina was wearing silver silk pants with a shimmery star pattern. Her shirt was a black, skin-tight short sleeve that showed off her lean but clearly muscled figure. With her silver hair and striking eyes Derayina was a beauty. A cold beauty but a true beauty nonetheless.

"Thanks for the help," Derayina said, her tone bordering on sarcastic. "But we should be getting to bed." The rest of the girls fluttered over a clearly irritated Derayina for a moment more before going back to their own beds. Hermione did the same but she was the only one who caught the look of disgust that flashed over Derayina's face for less than a second.

Only after everyone said their good nights and settled down to sleep did Hermione hear Derayina close her notebook and the rustling of sheets indicating that Derayina was finally going to sleep. And Hermione sighed, glad that Derayina hadn't snuck out of the dormitory as she had expected her to because she knew she would have followed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_They attacked in a flurry of movement and black fabric, launching themselves from the shadows and stone walls that made the alley ways the keystone of Nodnol's underground. She tried and strained to see their faces, aiming to imprint them in her mind. Revenge. Revenge. Revenge. Revenge. But scarves were wrapped high and tight around faces. However, the brute strength behind the attack gave away the fact that the entire group was made up of men. As fists, kicks and insults slammed into their target she allowed herself one act of desperation when she curled into a small ball and wrapped her arms over her head, protecting her vital organs and face as she had taught the younger children to do. Bones cracked, skin split and blood ran but she bit down on her lip until the skin broke to halt any sound from escaping. She would not give her attackers the satisfaction of hearing her cry out. The tinny metallic taste of blood filled her mouth as one punch knocked out a tooth and gouged the skin inside her cheek. There was a pause before arms were snapped back down, leaving her face unprotected. _

"_Do you know who we are?" But she had resolved they would hear no sound from her. No cry, no yells, no yelps, no whimpers, no grunts, no words. So she spat. And squirreled away her pathetic triumph when a gob of spit and blood hit one of the attackers in the eye, the only part of his face visible around the scarf. Dull brown eyes ignited for a moment before a shooting star of bronze crossed her vision. Bones snapped out of place and realigned. Brass knuckles. Still, no sound passed her mutilated mouth. _

"_Demon eyes." Knives._

"_Thou shalt not suffer to let a sorceress live." Stones._

_The heel of a boot came crashing down on the back of her knee, smashing the joint completely. Finally, a scream. _

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Derayina shot up into a sitting position, her mouth opened to scream but the only sound that came out was a ragged whisper. Her knee ached, a phantom pain. One pale hand was slowly brought up to trace the scar on her face. The scar she kept hidden during the day. Magic was wonderful. Slowly, steadily returning her breathing to the normal pace Derayina lowered herself back down. When her head hit the pillow she practically melted into the mattress, her entire body relaxing and softening. As the night melted into dawn Derayina lay awake, reflecting on the past, carefully compartmentalizing each emotion that accompanied it and storing them into the deepest recesses of her mind. And when the sun rose Derayina had revived her cold demeanor and the stage was set for another day. The mask fell.


End file.
